Local News

Child Safety Seat Fitting Station, 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Dec. 18 at Las Vegas Fire Station #1 at 604 Legion Drive. The fitting service is a public service available to everyone. For more information or to make an appointment, call 800-231-6145.

An area couple, owners of a local animal grooming business, were arrested earlier this week on multiple counts of animal cruelty after authorities last month found horses, chickens, dogs and cats starving and living in filthy conditions.

The animals were immediately removed from the property in the area of San Miguel after the New Mexico Livestock Board secured a court order from San Miguel County Magistrate Court.

It wasn’t quite the outcome anyone was hoping for, but on Tuesday afternoon a San Miguel County jury convicted a man of causing the death of a baby while driving recklessly, but acquitted him of more serious charges of being drunk at the time of the crash.

Ramon Hernandez — a Guatemala native who resides in Santa Fe — faces up to 10 years in prison. If the jury had determined that he was drunk at the time of the crash, he would be facing significantly more prison time.

With less than two weeks left before Christmas, city officials are scrambling to find a tree for the old Safeway parking lot on Douglas Avenue. The city put out a call to the community Wednesday for a large Christmas tree that can be put up there.

Anyone who wants to donate the tree should call the city at 454-1401 and ask for the city manager’s office.

ALBUQUERQUE — Two doctors and a Santa Fe woman with advanced uterine cancer want physicians in New Mexico to be able to prescribe — without the fear of prosecution— the needed medications for terminally ill patients who want to end their lives on their own terms.

Standing in their way is a decades-old New Mexico law that makes it a fourth-degree felony to assist someone in suicide.

SANTA FE — A legislative panel is considering possible changes to a lottery-financed college scholarship program so that awards aren’t tied to tuition.
Legislative Finance Committee Chairman Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela outlined the proposal Tuesday during a hearing on the scholarship program, which faces a shortfall because lottery revenue isn’t keeping pace with rising scholarship costs.